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Saturday, September 1, 2012

When not reading the Bible becomes a major problem...

Some atheist bloggers have been talking about a billboard recently put up in Texas by a local man that says "Pray for Obama" and reference a verse from Psalms, Psalms 109:8, to be more precise. All seems good and well, until you actually look up the verse in question. It gets even better when it is read in context, when you dig deeper into the meaning, it's actually alarming enough that the Secret Service started investigating.

The billboard seems harmless enough at first:

OK, good so far, but what does that verse actually say? (To give some context, this chapter talks about "wicked men")

Psalm 109:8 (KJV): "Let his days be few; and let another take his office."
Depending your interpretation of "Let his days be few", this could be a problem. If taken figuratively, it could mean that this person would want Obama's days in office to be few, but if you take it literally, it could mean that he would want the days of his life to be few. It's really up to interpretation at this point, but wait, read it in context.

Psalms 109: 7:13:

"7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.8Let his days be few; and let another take his office.9Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.10Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.11Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.12Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.13Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out."

There's a major problem here, don't you think?

Who knows, maybe he didn't read the passage in context, which is a possibility, and this can just be chalked up to a major blunder, and get quite a few laughs, but if he's serious, well, let the Secret Service sort this out.

I sure don't envy the Secret Service, as hostile as people have been in politics in recent years, and with the US having it's 2 last presidents be probably the most controversial in US history, I'm sure they've seen far worse than this.

Moral of the story? When quoting anything, read it in context first, especially if you are quoting from a holy text, otherwise you will end up with a major fail like this....

Credit and many thanks to The Friendly Atheist (Patheos) for this story. Also thanks to pro-LGBT rights blog Joe. My. God for this story, and I "stole" the picture of the billboard from that post (psst. don't tell anybody ;) )